Lotus technical director James Allison explained that weight is the reason the team has not covered up the stepped nose on the E21.

The unveiling of the 2013 car showed it to be similar to its predecessor - the E20 - in many ways, one of which was the stepped nose where the chassis meets a lower nose cone. The teams agreed last season that in order to try and improve the aesthetics of the car a modesty panel would be allowed to cover the step.

However, Allison explained during the launch of the car that Lotus had yet to develop a panel that had an aerodynamic benefit, and therefore just adding extra weight was not going to be beneficial to the car's performance.

"We have not done it yet because the cosmetic panel would weight a few grams and with a Formula One car putting on a few grams that you don't need to is really anathema to us." Allison said. "However, if we find a cosmetic panel that looks nice but much more importantly and crucially develops us a bit of downforce we'll pop it on quick as you like!"